Sean MacBride

Sean MacBride, born on January 26, 1904 in Paris, was Chairman of the controversial MacBride Commission (Commission on International Communication for UNESCO) (1977-1980).

McBride "took an active part in the movement for Irish independence and suffered imprisonment on several occasions." From 1947 to 1958, he was a member of Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament) and served from 1948 to 1951 as Minister for External Affairs for Ireland in Inter-Party Government. In 1954 was offered but declined the Ministerial Office in Irish Government.

MacBride was Chairman of Amnesty International 1961-1975. He served as Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists(1963-1971). From 1968 to 1974, he served as Chairman of the Executive International Peace Bureau 1968-1974 and from 1975 to 1985 as the Bureau's President. He was the recipient of both the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 and the Lenin Peace Prize in 1977, and is credited with "significantly shaping the entire international human rights movement."

MacBride is said to have "spent most of his youth with his mother in Paris as she constantly moved between Dublin and Paris." MacBride's father was "executed by the British when he was 15 for his role in the Easter Uprising and MacBride "grew up among the bohemian Paris artistic community, then returned to a free Ireland where he served as counsel to the IRA and later became Minister of External Affairs. After losing political office, he began a new life advancing the International Human Rights movement." MacBride died in January 1988. "The Irish Amnesty International section is now located in Sean MacBride House in Dublin, and an annual peace prize is awarded in his name by the International Peace Bureau."

--- Curriculum Vitae from Nobel Prize web site.
 * Former President (1974-1985), International Peace Bureau


 * Former Sponsor (1983), Minority Rights Group

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